News 2011: Airwaves Racing Qualifying Report Brands Hatch Indy

April 2nd

It was a bright start to the opening round of the 2011 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship campaign for the Airwaves Racing team at their local Brands Hatch circuit today. With the Kent Sun shining brightly, the team came away pleased overall with the pace and performance of the new Ford's following a successful qualifying session.

Both Airwaves drivers set consistently good lap times throughout qualifying with Mat Jackson securing his 6th position on the grid for the first of tomorrow's three races. Newcomer Liam Griffin impressed the team with his opening session, having stepped up from the Motorbase Porsche Carrera Cup this season, and finished in an encouraging 14th place.

Speaking after the session, Mat Jackson said: "Overall, I'm happy with how qualifying went, and it's definitely a positive result for the car and team." He added: "It's a shame that we couldn't get up to the front of the time sheets, but it's a great testament to the team here at Motorbase to be the top Ford on the grid for the first race. We just need to make sure that we do the same again in tomorrow's race where it counts".

His Airwaves Racing team mate Liam Griffin was also satisfied following the qualifying session and commented: "If you would have offered me 14th place on the gird at the start of the day I would have been happy!"

Speaking about his debut race in the BTCC tomorrow, Liam [Griffin] confirmed that he's looking forward to the new challenge and that he and the team view consistency as the key for this season. He added: "The priority for tomorrow is to finish the race and then to build on from there. I feel that I'm in a group that all have a similar level of experience and have raced to a similar standard so we should have a good tussle and race tomorrow!"

The opening three rounds of the season take place at Brands Hatch tomorrow 3rd April, with the first of the day's three races due to start at 11.45am. Live coverage of all of Sunday's events will be shown on ITV4, itv.com and also in HD from 11.30am – 6pm.